The other day I noticed a bunch of Canadian geese down at the Fraser River Styrofoam patch. Why, I wondered, would they prefer to toddle here rather than fly south for the winter? More importantly, I wondered why was no one cleaning this mess up. I decided to take a half hour out of my day and putting it toward my own personal community initiative. I was going to pick up garbage and report my findings.

The short version of this review: Wild Rice changes what going out for a meal means in New Westminster.

It’s time for the sixth annual Light Up The Quay, a fun and friendly competition put on by the Quayside Community Board that helps increase donations to the winter food drive and encourages neighbours to duke it out for awards.

I was lucky to win a couple of tickets to this years incarnation of Freelance Camp, an ‘unconference’ hosted by The Network Hub. It’s certainly a nice change to see an event promoting freelancing, networking, and technology come to little New Westminster.

Perhaps nothing better symbolizes New Westminster’s often polarizing politics than the Westminster Pier Park project. The ambitious, even audacious, $25-million project involves reclaiming a long stretch of blighted brownfield bordering the Fraser River for a new public park.

The second annual Vancouver Freelance Camp ‘unconference’ is coming up Saturday, September 10, from 9am to 5pm, just a few days before The Network Hub’s grand opening at their brand new second location in New Westminster’s River Market.

This weekend marks the 5th Annual Quayside Festival and Sale and I have to admit that this was one of my favourite community events last year. And it wasn’t just because I sold  a tonne of my unwanted cast-offs – it was because it was a nice sunny day and hanging out by the river is always a nice thing to do.
Says event organizer and Quayside Board president, James Crosty, “Over 7,500 people are expected to stroll more than a kilometer along the Boardwalk from the River Market to Quayside Park …

With summer beginning, families are starting to enjoy Downtown New Westminster and the Waterfront and exploring the River Market. A very friendly family at Emilio’s Deli is really making people smile, reintroducing them to the Market and starting to introduce themselves. People smell the fresh variety of cheeses and meats, but the also see and hear the friendly father and his sons getting to know people.

Change is good. Don’t get me wrong I’m all for tradition, but it’s nice to switch things up once in a while! And that’s exactly what Hyack is doing this year with the 40th Annual Opening Celebration of the Hyack Festival.

In New West, we certainly know how to celebrate! This year there are two days of Easter fun! There is, of course, the annual Antique Car and Easter Parade on Sunday, but with the re-opening of the River Market this year, there are now festivities on Saturday for everyone to enjoy, especially if family lunches and dinners take you out of the action in Queen’s Park on Sunday.

Bloom Art Studio at River Market is a safe place for kids to get messy – without driving parents crazy. At home, I like to craft with the kids, but I’m always a little leery of anything truly messy. It’s fun, but I always worry about the cleanup. In a space like Bloom, the kids are free to play with colour and form in a space that’s designed to handle mess.

The $5-million reno of the dilapidated old Quay is unquestionably beautiful. But since the shiny new River Market opened with much fanfare last November, many New Westminster folk whocame to see the new building were disappointed to find only a grocery store, a circus school and a lot of empty storefronts. Others (like me) were more willing to give River Market some time to find its feet. I’m happy to say River Market’s got some welcome news: coffee is coming, and a lot more too.

For those who haven’t yet heard, Translink is back with a new round of consultations on the Highway Nobody Wants.  The first in a series of United Boulevard Extension workshops is this Saturday, 9:30am-12pm at the Sapperton Pensioners Hall, 318 Keary Street.

Tucked away next to the escalators inside River Market, Great Wall Tea packs a lot of taste into a tiny space. While initially I was disappointed not to have a coffee shop open at the Quay, the silver lining is that this has encouraged me to expand my hot drink habits and try tea instead.

Many afternoons or weekends over the past 12 years living on the Quay, I have seen amazement on the faces of children and elderly people pointing out on the river as they share tales of the past with a very knowledgeable person at one very special point on the waterfront. The place is the Samson V and the person is Mark MacKenzie, the smart man who devotes himself to the care of this wonderful ship.

Can the North Fraser Perimeter Road, creating a four lane truck route through New Westminster even be built? Let’s examine the feasibility of the City’s mitigation wish list.

We won; we stopped the flood gates of the United Boulevard Extension from opening and releasing the hordes of new commuter traffic on to already chocked New Westminster streets. Or did we?

Today was the big reveal of Donald’s Market at River Market. On the first day of snow at the beginning of the great winter of 2010/2011, more than half way through November, we all finally got to see what Mark and his team from River Market have been building.

A while back we partnered with River Market to host the P.S. New West poetry contest. River Market selected the winners and gave them the prizes, but their email to me with the winners’ names got lost in my email inbox. I just rediscovered the note today (oops). My inbox is a scary, scary place. Anyway, a bunch of you have been asking me about the winners, and here (belatedly) is who won. Sorry about the delay!

New Westminster toy store Pedagogy Toys has been saved from closing thanks to a show of support from the community and a well-timed offer of skookum new digs in River Market at the Quay. Like so many other New West parents, I’m a fan of Pedagogy Toys, and so I wanted to find out more from owner Karen Smecher about the move from Sapperton to the Quay. Karen kindly agreed to answer a few questions via email:

From the River Market renovations to the cheap rent, here’s one woman’s top 10 reasons why she loves living in New West. What would you put on your list?

Royal City pets (and their owners) are invited to show off their costumes in the “Petrifying Pooch Parade” at the Quayside Off-Leash Dog Park at the corner of Rialto Court and Esplanade at noon on Saturday, Oct. 30, 2010.

People looking down to the Fraser River from the West End and enjoying beautiful views from the River Walk at Port Royal or the Esplanade at Westminster Quay always notice the cottonwood trees growing tall and wild on Poplar Island. It appears untouched by anyone, but it actually has a long history. Many things, people and struggles have lived for 150 years on or about the unique island.

New West gets its thrift on this weekend at the 4th Annual Quayside Boardwalk Festival & Sale. On Saturday, August 21 from 10am to 3pm, the boardwalk at the Quay will bustle with bargain-hunters seeking their treasures.

River Market’s grocer may not officially open its doors until September, but the team behind the market’s renaissance is already reaching out to the New Westminster community. The market’s ambition reaches beyond milk, bread and bok choy. It is to be a place of culture and community, a place of inspiration. It begins with a simple contest in collaboration with Tenth to the Fraser called P.S. New West.